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“Ridicule is the tribute paid to the genius by the mediocrities.”
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“A library in the middle of a community is a cross between an emergency exit, a life raft and a festival.”
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“Government should allow persons to engage in whatever conduct they want to, no matter how deviant or abnormal it may be, so long as (a) they know what they are doing, (b) they consent to it, and (c) no one - at least no one other than the participants - is harmed by it.”
Source : Edwin M. Schur, Hugo Adam Bedau (1974). “Victimless crimes: two sides of a controversy”, Prentice Hall
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“I’ve tried that. I’ve tried aspirin, too. Rusty thinks I should smoke marijuana, and I did for a while, but it only makes me giggle. What I’ve found does the most good is just to get into a taxi and go to Tiffany’s. It calms me down right away, the quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there, not with those kind men in their nice suits, and that lovely smell of silver and alligator wallets. If I could find a real-life place that made me feel like Tiffany’s, then I’d buy some furniture and give the cat a name.”
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“That bad letters of every kind arise from want of the habit of thinking, I cannot doubt.”
Source : Mary Russell Mitford (1870). “The Life of Mary Russell Mitford: Related in a Selection from Her Letters to Her Friends”, p.174, London, R. Bentley
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“The worst thing is not being wrong, but being sure one is not wrong.”
Source : Paul Tournier (1978). “The Violence Within”, HarperCollins Publishers
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“When a man is wrong and won't admit is, he always gets angry.”
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“[On the propulsive force of rockets] One part of fire takes up as much space as ten parts of air, and one part of air takes up the space of ten parts of water, and one part of water as much as ten parts of earth. Now powder is earth, consisting of the four elementary principles, and when the sulfur conducts the fire into the dryest part of the powder, fire, and air increase ... the other elements also gird themselves for battle with each other and the rage of battle is changed by their heat and moisture into a strong wind.”
